Conditions were hot, clear, and dry. After departing the well-defined trail to the Ashram, I bushwhacked for an hour and only went about a quarter mile and 700 ft gain due to my poor route-finding and trail-recognition skills. Finally getting back to the west side of the creek, there appeared no defined trail, however navigation is easy from this point on - it's just a long sand slog for the next few miles and 5000 ft of elevation gain.

I don't know an exact elevation, but there was no water in the creek once above 9000-10000 ft. There was a small snowfield along the route around 11500 ft, which I used to refill my reservoir both ascending and descending.

Langley comes into view only once you gain the ridgeline around 12000 ft., the top of its characteristic eastern couloir still holding some snow. As I gain elevation and more of the couloir comes into view, I am glad I chose the sand-slog - the couloir is mostly bare and the talus scramble would've been no fun (this couloir is 3 times the size of the chute on Whitney's Mountaineers Route, and that talus scramble is a pain).

Hitting the Langley plateau around 13300 ft, an intimidating south face protects its summit. Ascending up the right side (USGS black dashed trail) proves to be easier (and more fun) than it looks, and the summit plateau is easily gained. There is no exposure or tricky climbing required. The only time I needed to traverse snow was at the top of the scramble, perhaps 20 yards of mushy snow.

A brand new register notebook was placed at the summit that very day, and 20+ people had already signed it - I assume all came from Cottonwood Lakes - I was the only hiker on the Tuttle Creek route. I hung out on the summit for almost an hour, talking with a couple who was also from San Diego, as well as a group of three guys.

After a careful 30 minute down-scramble, descending was incredibly fast - plunge steps down the sand! I again had to bushwhack for an hour to find the well-defined Ashram trail. I made a detour to check out the Ashram before heading down to my vehicle at the trailhead.